Hong Kong’s retired chief prosecutor defended the push by the secretary for justice to lock up 16 activists who previously escaped jail sentences as there was “no choice” otherwise.

Former director of public prosecutions Ian Grenville Cross, SC, however agreed the Secretary for Justice, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, as a politically appointed official, should in future consider assigning the prosecution power to the director of public prosecutions instead, as he was independently appointed.